Working with massive archive files (130GB in this case) presents unique challenges when your storage partition doesn't have capacity for both the archive and extracted contents. Traditional sequential extraction requires 2x space temporarily - the archive plus its contents.

The most efficient approach uses streaming extraction combined with piped deletion:

pv big_file.tar | tar xvf - --directory=/storage && rm -f big_file.tar

Breaking this down:

• pv monitors transfer progress (install via apt install pv if needed)
• The pipe (|) streams data directly to tar without temporary storage
• && ensures deletion only occurs after successful extraction

For extremely large files or unreliable connections:

mkdir /storage/extracted
tar --checkpoint=1000 --checkpoint-action="exec=rm -f big_file.tar" \
    -xvf big_file.tar -C /storage/extracted

Add integrity checking for critical data:

tar xvf big_file.tar -C /storage \
    && tar -df big_file.tar -C /storage \
    && rm big_file.tar

For enterprise environments, consider this robust bash script:

#!/bin/bash
ARCHIVE="big_file.tar"
TARGET="/storage"

if tar tvf "$ARCHIVE" &>/dev/null; then
    if tar xvf "$ARCHIVE" -C "$TARGET"; then
        if tar df "$ARCHIVE" -C "$TARGET" &>/dev/null; then
            rm -v "$ARCHIVE"
            echo "Extraction and validation complete"
        else
            echo "Validation failed" >&2
            exit 3
        fi
    else
        echo "Extraction failed" >&2
        exit 2
    fi
else
    echo "Archive verification failed" >&2
    exit 1
fi

Working with large archive files presents unique challenges when storage space is tight. When you're dealing with a 130GB TAR file and your destination partition has just enough room for either the archive or its contents - but not both simultaneously - you need a strategic approach.

The most efficient solution is to stream the extraction process while deleting each file from the archive after extraction. This method requires only slightly more space than the largest single file in your archive.

tar -xvf large_file.tar --remove-files

For critical data, consider a two-phase approach:

# First verify the archive integrity
tar -tf large_file.tar > file_list.txt

# Then extract with verification
tar -xvf large_file.tar --verify

For extremely large archives where even streaming is problematic:

# List contents first
tar -tf large_file.tar | while read -r file; do
    # Extract single file and delete from archive
    tar -xvf large_file.tar "$file" --delete
done

• Ensure you have sufficient space for the largest single file in the archive
• Always maintain backups when modifying original archives
• Consider compressing with higher ratios if recreating the archive is an option

For faster processing on modern systems:

# Use parallel processing if supported
tar -xvf large_file.tar --use-compress-program=pigz --remove-files